


cups

by ficklefixal



Series: zero [3]
Category: Bakugan Battle Brawlers, ゼロの使い魔 | Zero no Tsukaima | The Familiar of Zero
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:33:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22611826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ficklefixal/pseuds/ficklefixal
Summary: It's stupid, she knows, but gods damn it, she MISSES them.—The number of times she almost died shouldn't make her laugh, but it does.In which a long overdue reunion is had, but not without a few trials.
Relationships: Louise de la Vallière & Original Female Character, Louise de la Valliére & Tayghen (Bakugan) & Hairadeen (Bakugan), Original Female Character & Centorrior (Bakugan) & Druman (Bakugan)
Series: zero [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1625356
Kudos: 3





	cups

It’s one of the few times that the twins can’t fall asleep, no matter how much they _want_ to fall asleep. They’d used their magic repeatedly throughout the day, from Louise’s Illusion spell to hide their base while Mira repaired the cloaking system, to the number of times Louisa lent the Bakugan her magic to see how much they could take (Shun’s idea, not hers).

With all the energy they’d used up, it’s a miracle—so Saito claims—that they didn’t pass out as soon as they sat down. No, they manage to make it through dinner (provided by Louisa’s pocket dimension, because Dan somehow manages to _still_ be hungry after two large servings and the Resistance’s food supply is minimal at best and scarce at worst), with plenty of quips and insulting nicknames hurled towards the Vexos.

Louisa also manages to wash the dishes—with magic, of course, much to Baron’s amazement—and use even more of her energy, hoping it would help her get to sleep faster. It didn’t. She even sent Louise and Saito off to her anchor (using, once again, her magic) so Saito could tire her twin out, and yet, the Valliére twins are still wide awake. With nothing better to do, Louise taps her sister’s back, making the younger twin flip over to look at her.

“I still can’t sleep.” The words are no more but a mere whisper, yet they resound in the silence blanketing their room. Louisa stares at her for a moment, before she shuffles out of bed, padding over to her jacket and pulling out an all-too familiar deck of cards.

“C’mere,” the word is so foreign coming from her twin, but it suits her in a way that’s so uniquely Louisa that she can’t find anything to complain about. “I’ll do a reading for us,” she says, spreading them out over a table.

With nothing else to occupy her time and energy, Louise joins her twin by the table, covering Louisa’s hand with hers as the younger Valliére cuts the deck into three. Together, they return the deck to one stack, slowly taking the first three cards. Louise holds her breath while her sister summons a faint orb of light, and with the practiced calm of a veteran tarot reader, flips them over.

The Six of Cups, upright. She chances a glance to her twin; whose face remains blank while the other two cards remain undisclosed.

The next card is the Three of Cups, upright. There’s a smile on Louisa’s face now, though it’s small. Finally, there’s only one card left for them to flip over, and they lace their fingers together as Louisa reveals the Devil, reversed.

“Huh.” The smile on Louisa’s face is nothing short of brilliant, but there’s something in the way she says the word that causes Louise to worry.

“What’s wrong?” To this, Louisa shakes her head, smile wavering for but a moment before it remains, a little forced, but somehow genuine.

“It’s nothing. We should go to sleep soon.” Louise stares at her as she arranges the cards, keeps her eyes on her as she tucks it back into her jacket, watches her as she shuffles back to the bed and tucks herself in. She waits until her twin falls asleep (or seems like it—she’d never learned when Louisa was actually asleep and when she was just faking) before she takes her jacket, carefully pulling the deck and a leather-bound notebook from it.

Where her sister was a prodigy with the cards (as she was— _is_ a prodigy with most forms of Brimiric magic), Louise had yet to know what they meant with but a single glance. And Louisa, who adored her twin sister with every inch of her body, would never dream of withholding information from Louise—hence the notebook. It’s filled with Louisa’s familiar scrawl, and Louise remembers how she ignored Saito’s pleas for help whenever he’d run past her room in a desperate bid to avoid Louise’s wrath.

(“You’re _still_ bitter about that?” She asked, pink eyes almost comically wide when Saito told her.

“I was yelling for help,” deadpans her husband, and Louisa shrugged.

“And?”

“And what?”

“It’s not the first time anyone’s yelled for help when Louise is around, how was I supposed to know?”

And then Saito spent the next hour or so banging his head on one of the pillars of their home, much to Louisa’s amusement. Louise and Siesta watched him with varying degrees of concern etched on their faces, while Louisa finished off the tea and biscuits she brought over.)

Louise flips through the pages, stopping once she sees the cards from their reading.

_The Devil, reversed. Breaking free._

_The Three of Cups, upright. A celebration, like a reunion._

_The Six of Cups, upright. Childhood innocence, nostalgia._

They were all positive, of that Louise was sure. And yet… There’d still been a flash of sadness in her eyes when they saw all three cards. It didn’t make sense, but when her fingers traced the sketch of the Six of Cups, Louise _remembered._

_A Bakugan, humanoid in form with feathers on his arms and tentacles for hair. His entire color scheme was blue and green; Aquos and Ventus. And in front of him, a human girl with pink hair, donning a green dress that Louise owned, a dress she stashed away back in Halkeginia. They seemed to be conversing, though Louise couldn’t hear them._

_Another memory, another Bakugan. This one looks like a girl, looks harmless enough while in the water, but when the pink-haired human from before holds out a card—an ability card, Louise thinks—she jumps out of the water. Her lower half is far from harmless, Louise realizes, what with it being a sea monster of sorts. Just like before, Louise can’t hear anything they’re saying, but when the human girl looks over her shoulder, she freezes._

_Looking back at her is **herself** , only three years younger. And that means…_

**_Hairadee. Tayghen._ ** _Her Bakugan, hybrids formed from the negative energy of the merged Aquos and Ventus worlds. Naga's... creations._

_Freaks, outcasts, just like she had been._

With a gasp, Louise finds herself back in the Resistance’s base, still seated on the floor of the room she shared with her sister. There are tears in her eyes, and though her pride demands that she wipes them away before someone sees, she doesn’t. It’s stupid, she knows, but gods damn it, she _misses_ them.

She misses the ferocity of Tayghen’s attacks, the way the Aquos-leaning Bakugan showed her rage and contempt through her actions. She misses Hairadee’s (admittedly annoying) screeches of delight, especially when they demolished their opponents in brawls. She even misses the scolding she’d give Hairadee for not listening to her during a brawl, something that Centorrior always commented on.

The thought makes her pause, makes her glance up to Louisa’s sleeping form. As far as Louise can tell, she’s fast asleep, curled up underneath the covers, hopefully in a dreamless slumber.

Did she see an old memory? Did she see something akin to what Louise just saw, scenes of their past as brawlers, long before they risked their lives to save their world?

Did Louisa see Druman and Centorrior, her partner Bakugan?

Was that why she looked unhappy?

Louisa groans in her sleep, loud enough to make Louise jump, scattering the cards in the process. She panics for a moment, before her wits return to her. While it’s never been in her nature to keep too many secrets from her twin, this… This wasn’t something Louisa should know. This wasn’t something she’d want her sister to know, especially if it meant keeping that look from crossing her eyes again.

It takes a while for her to arrange the cards, though that’s mostly her fault—she didn’t want to wake Louisa after all, and turning a light on just might stir her from her slumber. Instead, Louise relies on the soft moonlight streaming in through a window. (And maybe the faint voices from the cards helped too; novice she may be, Louise knows enough about her twin’s readings to know that the cards would speak to her every now and then.)

The last two cards of the tarot deck just so happened to be Louisa’s favorites: The Fool—whose figure looked too familiar for comfort—and the Magician.

Louise stares at the drawing of the Fool, noting the closed eyes and flowing pink hair. She couldn’t tell whether the Fool was a girl or not, as their robes were too long and too loose for her to tell. What Louise was sure of is that the smile on their face was too similar to the close-eyed smile Louisa often donned when she had the upper hand. It’s too disconcerting for her to look at any longer, so she shoves both cards and notebook back into Louisa’s jacket.

She lingers in the doorway to take one last glimpse at her sister, before she leaves. She can’t sleep anyway, so why not make the most of a sleepless night?

(Tomorrow, Saito will keep a close eye on her, afraid that she might pass out if he doesn’t.

“You’d think you almost died from not sleeping well for one night.” There’s a smirk on her face as she speaks, and Louise turns as pink as their hair.)

The minute her twin leaves, Louisa’s eyes fly open. There’s a dimness in her eyes where the light should’ve been, and her eyes soon shut once more.

She’s falling, that much Louisa knows. She tries to open her mouth, tries to summon her magic to at least slow her descent, but to no avail. Nothing’s thrumming beneath her skin, not even the barest hint of magic. Her heart—she has no idea if it’s leapt to her throat or sunk down to her stomach—is nowhere near her chest now. There’s nothing for her, she realizes, and nothing against her. It’s just a near-continuous fall, but then it’s not.

The moment her feet touch solid ground, she opens her eyes, looking around the barren darkness. Thunder rumbles overhead, and lightning strikes the ground several feet to her left. This is the first time she’s seen this place, but there’s a familiarity in her bones that tells her where she is.

“The Doom Dimension…” she whispers, blinking. Another flash of lightning strikes nearby, and she flinches, casting a shield up to protect herself. She has no idea if a dream could hurt her, but it’s better safe than sorry—there’s no telling what the Doom Dimension could do to a mage, even if it’s just their consciousness. That, and she isn’t stupid; the Magician warned her against astral projecting her consciousness anywhere, much less into hostile territory. Then again, she could be forgiven for this. It’s not like she _meant_ to astral project into what’s essentially the Bakugan’s version of the afterlife, anyway!

Thunder continues to roll above her, and in all honesty, she refused to stay put. Saito would give her an earful about it, would probably tell her to stay where she is and _wait_ for someone, anyone to find her, but he’s not here. For the first time in three years, Louisa is finally, _truly_ alone.

She doesn’t know how to feel about that, but she doesn’t get to think about it—lightning strikes around her, and when it disappears, six familiar figures tower over her.

The Six Ancient Warriors surround the young mage, and the only thing that passes through her mind is _I’m dead_. It’s a perfectly reasonable assumption, as the last time she saw them (or so Centorrior claimed) was… Huh. She doesn’t remember when she saw them for the first time, though she knows this isn’t their first meeting.

(Later, she’ll learn that there’s a sizeable gap in her memories, oddly spanning the time from her brawl against Naga—and she still has no idea if she managed to beat that skeletal excuse for a dragon or not—to just before the Bakugan returned home.

A little after that, she’ll learn that she lost, much to her dismay. And then Centorrior and Druman—powerful Bakugan they were, they still had their moments of stupidity—made a deal with Naga, hence them working for him. She has no idea how they managed to drag Hairadee, Tayghen, Rabeeder, and Tricloid into it, and they weren’t keen on explaining that, hence a grudging stalemate on the issue.)

“Mage,” says one of them—Apollonir, maybe. The voice came from behind her, so it had to be him. “You came here to help free the Bakugan. A noble cause, and yet… You have no means to free them.” The truth of his words makes her flinch, the shield wavering in response to her emotions.

“I—” This time, it’s Oberus who speaks, effectively cutting her off.

“You can’t fight with only your magic, dear. While your control over wind and fire is stupendous, using water or earth may harm the Bakugan.”

“And your sister’s magic is far too destructive to use for offense. Powerful, yes, but she cannot control it just yet,” Exedra adds, and her fists clench. Did they honestly summon her for _this_?

“Her familiar is a strong warrior,” Lars Lion notes, and her fists loosen. She’s proud of both Louise and Saito, of how much they’ve grown, and the fact that beings from a different dimension noticed makes warmth bloom in her chest. “But he cannot fight _all_ the Bakugan to free them.” And the pride is gone.

“I know that,” she says before she loses the chance. “But we came to help, regardless of whether or not we have the proper means to do so.” So far, she and Louise have been able to help by turning some of their spells into Ability Cards, allowing their friends’ Bakugan access to their magic. It’s an exhausting effort, but it was all they could do.

“Which is why we have an offer.” She almost gives herself whiplash with how quickly she turns to Frosch, eyebrows furrowed.

“I—What?”

“We will return your Bakugan to you,” says Clayf. “ _If_ you pass our trials.”

“My Bakugan? You mean… Centorrior and Druman?” Her mind spins at the thought of being reunited with them, and though it might be dangerous enough to warrant an earful from both Louise and Saito, she can’t find it in herself to care. Suddenly, her mind flashes back to the reading she did, recalling both the Six of Cups—naivety, innocence, _childhood_ —and the Three of Cups. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the cards were telling her of this, and she looks to the Ancient Warriors, eyes burning with determination.

“What do I need to do?” The Ancients look at one another, before they disappear one by one. Only Lars Lion and Clayf remain, and the surroundings change. Gone is the barren desolation of the Doom Dimension, and both thunder and lightning vanish along with it. Instead, she finds herself in a desert, the sun beating down on the earth with a vengeance.

“Find them, and awaken them.” Clayf turns into a ball once he finishes speaking, and he settles on her shoulder.

“We will guide you, but be warned: nothing is as it seems.” Then, Lars Lion assumes her ball form as well, landing on her other shoulder. With that, she treks off towards the horizon, not even noticing how her sleep clothes transformed into a khaki set fit for traversing the desert.

She must’ve been walking for an hour (maybe? She’s not sure, time always passes differently in dreams) before she pauses, squints, then turns to the Bakugan accompanying her.

“We’ve been going in circles, haven’t we.” It’s less of a question than it is a statement, and Clayf bobs up and down in a nod.

“Now think, Louisa. Which of them could—” She doesn’t give him a chance to finish before she sends a wave of fire into the sky. For a moment, it doesn’t seem to do anything, and then the sky cracks and shatters. Not five feet away float two familiar hybrids: Rabeeder and Tricloid.

“They’re asleep,” she notes, walking around the two hybrid Bakugan. There’s a frown on her face before she bends down, picking a pebble up and chucking it at Tricloid’s knee. Nope. Didn’t work. She tries the same thing on Rabeeder, except with a slightly bigger rock and a higher aim. Still nothing.

She ends up in front of them once more, tapping her foot against the rough ground while her hand drifts to where the cards would normally be. When her fingers touch air, she sighs, shaking her head. Perhaps she’s become _too_ dependent on them for guidance, though she needs plenty of it right now.

Gods, what wouldn’t she do for a word or two with the Magician, or maybe some advice from the High Priestess? At this point, she’ll even take some dramatic analogy from the Hanged Man if it would help (in some roundabout way, it usually does). But she doesn’t have them with her, and she’s _alone_ , with only two of the six Ancient Warriors to keep her company. With a sigh, she drops into a crouch, chin in her hands.

A slow rumble jostles her from the position she’s adopted, almost knocking her flat onto the ground. When she looks down, the rumbling stops.

 _Rumbling_. _Earth._ Suddenly, she smiles.

“Alright, time to bust you two out.” Again, she crouches to the ground, this time burying her fingers in the sand and feeling for the earth. There’s a fluid, almost insistent tugging on the fringes of her magic, but she ignores it for now. It’s not water she’s looking for, but earth. She can’t quite find it as quickly as she wanted to, but then there’s another insistent tug on her magic. It’s not swift and fleeting like wind, nor is it harsh and aggressive like fire. This one is silent and steady, almost like her own heartbeat.

 _Ba-dump_. She reaches for it, gasps when it reacts to her magic.

 _Ba-dump._ Suddenly, another tremor rocks the ground, this one barely stronger than the last.

 _Ba-dump._ The tremors increase in frequency and strength, slowly at first, until it speeds up so much that she almost loses her balance.

 _Ba-dump._ Clayf and Lars Lion don’t speak, though she feels a weight in the pocket of her shirt. It must be them.

 _Ba-dump._ Nothing at first, but then she hears twin gasps from above her. She looks up, and grins when she finds both Rabeeder and Tricloid looking down.

“Louise Françoise?”

“Louisa Marie?” She couldn’t help but laugh at the sisters’ confusion. For all the time the Haos-Subterra siblings spent with her and her sister, they still couldn’t tell the twins apart.

“It’s Louisa,” she says, and then they attack her with a barrage of questions.

(“How—”

“Magic.” She cuts Tricloid off without meaning to, though she more or less knows what questions they have for her.

“Why—” Rabeeder doesn’t get to finish her question either, and she makes a mental note to apologize to them later on.

“Invaders.”

“Where—”

“Henrietta is Queen now, and she can’t leave even if she wanted to. Louise and her husband are with me.”

“Queen?!”

“Husband?!”

“It’s a long story.”)

By the time Tricloid and Rabeeder return to their ball forms—only after several promised explanations and relived memories, particularly of Louise’s wedding—they’re alone, Clayf and Lars Lion having left while Louisa tries to answer the sisters’ questions to the best of her abilities.

More importantly, the desert disappeared. Now, they’re surrounded by trees, though the wind almost tears several trees from the ground—and almost topples Louisa over, too.

“Louisa Marie!” Rabeeder yelps when she _does_ fall over, and she gives them a soft, reassuring smile as she discreetly rubs her butt. Ow.

“I’m fine, don’t worry.” Picking herself up, she surveys the environment and sends her magic out to know what was next. Considering the wind, she’s almost entirely sure that they’re in the Ventus and Aquos realm, which means…

“It’s good to know you’ve found Tricloid and Rabeeder.” Oberus appears in front of them, the wind kicking up as the Ventus soldier stops a few feet from her.

“Now you need to find your twin’s Bakugan,” Frosch says, appearing from a jet of water that burst from the ground.

“Tayghen and Hairadee are rather mercurial,” Louisa murmurs, to which both Oberus and Frosch agree. “Would you happen to have a suggestion as to who I should look for first?” And though she’ll never admit it, she sincerely hopes it’s Hairadee. Wind magic comes easily to her, almost as easily as fire does. As for water… Her skill with water and earth is a work in progress, and she’s thankful for the Magician’s infinite patience with teaching her.

“Tayghen is in a lake straight ahead, while Hairadee… Hairadee is rather difficult to track down. I suggest going after her first.” And that hope is promptly defenestrated, dashed, and scattered to the winds. Gods, of _course_ it’d be Tayghen first. Of _course_ it had to be the one whose preferred attribute was one that Louisa wasn’t skilled in yet. Not that she’d rather deal with Hairadee of course, but at least she could use the wind to protect herself and make him listen to her. With Tayghen? She might as well go into the magical realms with no protection.

With a sigh, she looks up at the two soldiers. “Lead the way, please and thank you.”

She doesn’t notice how the wind seems to slow down as she follows Oberus and Frosch, nor does she notice how the earth softens wherever she steps. She doesn’t notice it, and how could she? It’s not like her magic’s strong enough to somehow influence the Doom Dimension of all places.

(Later, she’ll learn that her magic has grown in leaps and bounds. It’s grown enough that Death is finally willing to teach her necromancy, after all those years of literally _begging_ them to teach her.)

She doesn’t notice when Frosch and Oberus have stopped, and as a result, she almost falls into the lake (and probably to her death; she never did learn how to swim). Instead, it takes all four Bakugan to pull her back some ways away from the water, and she sits there, still a little lost in her thoughts.

From what little she remembers of her (which was odd, when she thinks about it. As her twin sister’s Bakugan, she should remember more about the Aquos-leaning hybrid, but she doesn’t), goading her would be the best and worst thing to do. The best, because like her sister, Tayghen didn’t take kindly to anyone insulting her abilities. The worst, because she could easily blast her with water, or drag her down into the lake and _drown_ her.

Looking to her companions, she finally gets up and starts pacing along the lake. Goading Tayghen is risky at best, and downright suicidal at worst, but that was the only idea she had. There’s no telling how much time has passed in the conscious world while she’s here, and she’d rather not worry anyone. Honestly, her last encounter with Spectra Phantom still had Mira concerned, though it’s not like she should be. He didn’t harm her, and she didn’t harm him. Besides, he’s predictable in the way that only the power-hungry are, nothing like the impulsive nature of some of the Major Arcana. Even still…

“Louisa Marie!” Tricloid and Rabeeder yell her name at the same time something wet wraps around her ankle, dragging her to the lake. Louisa barely manages to get a glimpse of the two hybrids reverting to their true forms before she goes under, kicking and flailing in an attempt to free herself from whatever it is that has her. The water removes most of the force in her movements, making them sluggish and her an easy prey to devour. She soon tires, movements slowing until she barely moves.

This isn’t the best way to die, she’ll admit, but it beats anything else. Maybe that was the Hanged Man talking, telling her to just give up and let the stars decide if she lives or dies. Maybe that was herself, the part she often kept under lock and key.

Either way, Louisa finds herself closing her eyes, body slowly sinking until she lands next to a slumbering girl at the very bottom.

Tayghen looks over at her newest victim, blank eyes widening when she sees the girl’s chest move. Bubbles float past them and to the surface, no doubt brought by her breathing, and she has to wonder when Louisa learned to breathe underwater. Or how, for that matter.


End file.
